Fugitive Millionaire Revenge (Fabian Cooper Book Two) (5 page)

Fabian shuts off the recorder. This is the third time he’s listened to Sloane utter those awful words. Even if he listened again and again he would still be filled with this sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Fabian downs another shot of whisky from a miniature bottle he got from the mini bar in his cabana. It’s 4 a.m. and he’s sitting here in the living room by himself as Claire sleeps soundly in the bedroom. He didn’t want to wake her just so she could watch him feel bad for himself. Yeah, he’s in the middle of a woe is me pity party. What he heard on that recording has gotten him so riled up inside that he’s tempted to get stinking drunk just so his mind can forget about how deeply hurt he is over being betrayed—no, stabbed in the back, front and sides by Nathan.

The wound is pretty deep, that’s for sure. He’s had some falling out with friends before, but never anything like this. What Nathan has done is the granddaddy of all screw jobs. He wishes he could just make it all go away. The worse part about it is that Nathan had been smiling in his face, telling him how supportive he was, making him feel like they were still the best of friends, close like brothers…and the whole time his best buddy was planning to destroy his reputation and his life with this little scheme he cooked up with Sloane.

Fabian opens another miniature liquor bottle, vodka this time. He starts to pour it into his shot glass, but hesitates. “Ugh. I can’t. I want to but I can’t let myself be defeated by this.” He puts the bottle and glass down on the coffee table. To relieve the pent up tension inside of him he punches his fist into a decorative couch pillow.

“Damnit!”

Punching the pillow feels good. He does it again, and again. In his mind he’s punching Nathan. A guy he thought he knew. A guy he can no longer call his friend.

“Nathan, you son of a bitch. You threw away everything for that conniving bitch. I’ll never be able to forgive you,” he says through clenched teeth.

Fabian grabs the pillow and presses its softness up hard against his chest. He rocks back and forth, allowing his thoughts to flow and his anger to dissipate. He can’t fall to pieces now. Claire is expecting him to come up with a plan to stop Sloane before she can activate the second part of their scheme. He must stay clear-headed and absolutely committed to clearing his name. His life is on the line, and Gray’s may be too.

“It doesn’t matter if Gray thinks I’m guilty of hurting Sloane.”

He doesn’t care about all the years he tried so hard to earn his father’s love and respect, but always coming up short. He has to try and let all the old resentments go.

“The only thing that matters right now is that I do the right thing for me, Gray and the Cooper family reputation.”

Fabian grabs the vodka, goes into the bathroom and pours it down the sink. “No more using alcohol as a crutch to get through my problems.”

Fabian can tell something is changing inside of him for the better. He now understands what people mean when they say that challenges in life make you stronger. He’s making a conscious decision about how to handle this matter. Today is the first day of the rest of his life.

Fabian climbs into bed and snuggles up next to Claire. He plans to get a few hours of rest before getting up and figuring out their next move.

*****

“We’ve gotta do what?”

“Claire, you heard what I said. We’ve got to kidnap Sloane and bring her back to New York.”

“Are you insane, Fabian?”

Fabian stands in the doorway of the bathroom watching Claire comb her wet hair. “Listen. I know this is extreme…”

“You think?”

“But, we don’t have any other choice, babe. The only way to stop Sloane from going to the cops acting like she’s my crime victim is to grab her and make sure it never happens.”

“So, we should kidnap Sloane to stop her from claiming that you kidnapped her.”

“Exactly.”

Claire pushes Fabian aside to get into the bedroom. She opens the closet and finds the sundress she wants to put on. Claire removes her robe, puts on her bra and panties and slips into the dress as Fabian watches.

“No. It’s way too risky. Come up with another plan.”

“I’ve racked my brain trying to think of another way, but I keep coming back to this one. We’ve tracked her all the way here. This is our only shot at keeping me out of jail.”

“There’s gotta be another way.”

“What? Tell me, Claire. I’m all ears.”

Claire slips into her sandals.

“Ugh. I don’t know! I don’t normally dream up illegal crime scenarios.”

“Then, you’re in?”

“This is crazy. How are we supposed to kidnap Sloane from a high-end resort without anyone seeing us?”

“I’ve already thought of a way to do it. I just need to know if you’re willing to help me pull it off. I don’t want you doing something you’re not comfortable with.”

“Fabian, kidnapping is a serious thing. There’s no way I’m going to be comfortable doing something like that. Can you honestly say you’re comfortable with it?”

Fabian goes to the closet and grabs his dark leather sandals. “No, okay. I’m not. But, I’m going to do what I have to do to save my ass. You’re either in or out,” he says as he slips his sandals on.

Claire sees the desperation in his eyes. She understands that they have a golden opportunity to stop Sloane before she has a chance to leave the resort. If they lose her now, who knows if they’ll get another chance?

Doing what Fabian is asking means that she is really pushing the envelope of her moral compass. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t even entertain the thought of kidnapping Sloane. But, her life has already jumped the shark and the time to act is now.

Claire wraps her arms around Fabian’s bare waist. “You know I’d give anything for us to be able to hang out together without constantly looking over our shoulders. If this is what we have to do to get our lives back to normal, then I’m all in.”

Fabian strokes Claire’s face with his hand. “Thank you. I promise you we won’t get caught as long as we work together as a team.”

“It’s our team against their team,” Claire says with a sly glint in her eyes. “Let’s kick their asses.”

*****

Fabian strolls the luxury car lot looking for a suitable vehicle to drive back to the States. The English-speaking car salesman walks alongside hoping he’ll find something too. Fabian has already entered into a tentative agreement with the salesman to trade in the SUV for something roomier. Technically, the SUV isn’t his to sell, but that’s not going to be a problem down here. Legalities can be brushed aside if you have enough money. The sales guy is going to get a decent commission on an all-cash deal as long as Fabian finds something he likes.

“We have a nice van over here,” the salesman offers.

Fabian glances over the red minivan. “No, that’s not what I want.”

Fabian looks ahead and spots an RV parked in isolation from other cars. “The RV. Is that for sale?”

“Yes, sir. Wanna see it?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ll go get the keys. Be right back.”

Fabian walks over to the late model used RV and knows in his gut that this is what he’s going to buy. It’s a mid-sized model that probably sleeps four to six people. Fabian checks out the tires. They seem to be in good condition. He can’t wait to have a look inside.

After several minutes, the salesman rushes up to the RV. “Okay, I’ll open her up and you can take a look inside.”

Fabian watches the man unlock the door. The salesman steps aside to allow Fabian to freely take a look around. Fabian immediately falls in love with the cream-colored leather bucket driver and passenger seats.

“Is this automatic?”

“Yeah, fully automatic drive. Has GPS, satellite radio, CD and DVD player.”

“Cool. I’m going to check out the rest.”

Fabian goes further inside and admires other features such as the tiled flooring, plush couch, 4-seat mini dinette, kitchenette with microwave, bathroom and plenty of storage space. He notices there’s a queen-sized bed above the front seating area. That’s where he and Claire will sleep.

The salesman peeks his head inside, smelling a potential sale. “I can give you a really good deal.”

Fabian knows whatever price the guy has in mind he’s going to wrangle him down until it really is a good deal. This is Mexico. Price haggling is expected. The key to winning this game is to be willing to walk away if the deal isn’t to his liking.

Of course, Fabian will be acting, because this is the only RV in the entire lot. He wants it bad, but knows he needs a negotiating angle in his favor.

“This is practically new, man. How’d you guys get it?”

The salesman’s eyes light up. “Honestly? A couple of guys that I suspect were drug dealers pretty much dumped it on us. They had no more use for it so they traded it for a sports car. We don’t normally sell RV’s but it was one of those deals we couldn’t refuse, you know?”

“Yeah, I gotcha. Okay, so what were you thinking of letting it go for?”

“Twenty thousand American dollars.”

Fabian whistles loudly. “No way.”

“That’s a great deal. Like you said, it’s practically new.”

“Yeah, but like you said, it’s been used by drug dealers. For all I know it could be stolen, or have been used to smuggle drugs over the border.”

Fabian just let the guy know that he’s not dealing with a naïve American sucker that doesn’t know how to play the game.

“Okay. How about seventeen thousand? I’ll take three thousand off for the SUV. So, you only pay fourteen thousand.”

“How about I walk out of here and take my American money and SUV with me? That offer is a joke.”

“Ah, man. You gonna play it that way? That’s a fair offer.”

“Not in my book. I’ll give you seven thousand with the trade-in.”

“Can’t do that, man. How about fourteen?”

“Hmm. We’re still too far apart. Tell you what. I’ll do eleven thousand five hundred tops. I’ll accept four thousand on the SUV, which leaves me paying seven thousand five to make up the difference. Deal?”

The salesman keeps his cool while calculating the numbers on his smartphone. Fabian is sure that the guy knows that the longer the RV sits in the lot the more it depreciates in value. There aren’t many people that are going to want it, a fact they both know. The salesman finally looks up and gives Fabian a broad smile. “Deal.”

“Great. I’ll need to have it ready for pick up later today.”

“No problem.”

*****

Claire places the black wig with bone straight hair onto her head and adjusts it to fit snuggly. She stares at herself in the mirror. She’s wearing a pastel blue maid’s uniform that is standard issue for the Sun Paradise cleaning crew. With the aid of some false eyelashes and a dark eyebrow pencil she is transformed into a woman that she hopes passes for a member of the resort’s cabana cleaning staff.

“Wow. I look so different. I think this is gonna work.”

Claire goes into the living room where Fabian and the real maid are waiting. “What do you think, babe?”

Fabian looks impressed. “Wow. That’s a good disguise. I’d never recognize you.”

Claire goes into Fabian’s money pouch and pulls out a single bill. She hands a crisp, new $100 bill to the maid that just finished cleaning their cabana. The maid is wearing the t-shirt and sweat pants Claire gave her to wear as a temporary outfit. “You can hang out here until we get back, okay? Do whatever you want. Eat, drink, watch TV and relax.”

“Thank you, miss. You two are very generous. Feel free to borrow my uniform and cart anytime.”

“We just need it for this one time,” Fabian says. “Remember, there’s another hundred in it for you when we come back. To earn it you’ve got to swear that you won’t tell a soul about this.”

“Oh no, senior. I’ll keep quiet. Besides, I could get in big trouble if management knew I let non-staff use company property.” The maid sits down on the couch and turns the TV channel to a local Mexican soap opera.

Fabian climbs into the cart. Claire hands him a duffel bag. Claire covers him up with a bunch of towels. Claire slowly pushes the cart out the door and down the pathway towards the other end of the resort. It’s taking all her effort to push her 150-pound boyfriend towards their destination.

She is hoping that none of the resort staff can tell she’s a gringo. She noticed that the few gringos working here are bartending, running health and fitness classes or doing management jobs. If a cleaning staff person should talk to her she’d stand out like a sore thumb, because she doesn’t speak a word of Spanish.

Claire can feel the anxiety rising in her gut as she wheels the cart up to the front door of cabana number four. She takes a deep breath and knocks.

Sloane Cooper answers the door wearing black leggings under a hot pink top. She looks at Claire waiting for her to say something. Claire is so busy being afraid of being recognized that she almost blows it.

“Are you here to clean or to stand there staring at me?”

“Sorry, ma’am,” Claire says in a fake Mexican accent. “I’m here to clean up. Forgive me for staring. I’m new. This is my first day.”

Sloane opens the door wide and allows Claire to wheel her cart inside.

“That’s okay. There’s not much to clean. You can just tidy up a bit while I read my magazine.” Sloane reclines on the couch and picks up the Elle magazine she’s in the middle of reading.

Claire proceeds to clean up the room the way she thinks a maid is supposed to do. She takes a spray bottle and uses the dust cloth to wipe down the coffee table, entertainment center and a chair. She takes the mini broom and dustpan from the cart and sweeps the floor in a few spots. Claire goes back to the cart and wheels it into the spacious bathroom. It hasn’t escaped Claire’s attention that Sloane’s cabana is bigger than theirs. She wonders if Sloane gets to live here free of charge. Nathan could easily make those arrangements.

Claire shuts the door behind her. She removes the towels from Fabian’s head and gives him a thumbs up sign.

Fabian quietly climbs out of the cart and removes the duffel bag. He hides behind the bathroom door and nods.